Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter series, it belongs to J.K. Rowling.

Thoughts

"Great Aunt Muriel," Gwen waited politely by the ornate metal table in the solarium where the old woman was drinking tea.

"Yes, Gwendolyn?"

"I need a pair of glasses that can adapt to changes in eyesight and will grow with their wearer."

The woman raised an eyebrow, "Those are quite pricey, how are you hoping to pay for them?"

"Is there something I can do for you in exchange?" Gwen was sure their aunt wanted something. For someone who didn't like Molly, she had been too eager to accept this babysitting gig.

"Convince one of your brothers to learn the Old Ways and become Lord Prewett."

Gwen looked shocked, "What?"

Muriel put her cup down and gestured for her to sit. A house elf appeared and served the little girl tea.

"When your mother got pregnant and eloped with Arthur, her parents disapproved. Your mother thinks it was because he was poor, but he was the son of a Weasley and a Black, and though poor blood traitors he and his brothers might have been, Arthur's blood is incredibly pure."

She sipped her tea. "The real reason, the one they could never admit aloud lest Molly get carted off to Azkaban, is that your mother fed Arthur a love potion. She committed bloodline theft. His parents didn't know, the poor man may not know either, but your grandparents knew."

Gwen froze, and put the pastry she'd been about to eat back down. "What?"

'I gave your father a little something, you know? He asked me out to Hogsmeade the next day.' Her mothers' voice whispered in her ears.

Muriel looked lost in thought, "Oh, Molly said she only used a weak one to catch his attention, that he was truly in love with her before she got pregnant… but there is no way to know, is there?"

Gwen felt sick.

"So, my brother wrote it clearly in his will: if Fabian and Gideon wanted to claim the Prewett Lordship, Molly would get nothing. No money, no gifts, nothing. Only if Molly was willing to say, under Veritaserum, that Arthur was free of any love potions when she fell pregnant… only then, could they help her."

Muriel looked at the pale little girl sadly, "Molly refused, so Fabian and Gideon refused to claim the Lordship, and per my brother's will, I did it instead." She looked down into her teacup, "I will be Lady Prewett until I die."

She smiled, "Or until I pass it onto one of your brothers once they're of age. Not the oldest of course, he'll be Heir Weasley, if Arthur ever decides to teach him. Besides, while your father had to be free of potions for the marriage vows to take, that doesn't mean William wasn't conceived under a love potion."

She sneered, "Such children always have something… wrong with them. Something missing. So, one of your other brothers will have to inherit. "

She took a sip, "I will not, however, allow them to inherit unless they learn the Old Ways. Manners and tradition are important, especially for a Lord that sits on the Wizengamot. I will not have them shame the family like Molly did."

Gwen felt numb, "I will… I'll talk to my brothers. I'll ask them if they're interested."

"Good girl, Gwendolyn." Muriel smiled.

§§§

The letter she wrote to Bill and Charlie that night was tear streaked.

The letter she got back two days later was wrinkled and just as tear stained.

We'll all learn. Bill wrote.

I don't want it, Charlie wrote, but Percy might.

My pureblood friends have been teaching me a bit, Bill admitted, but it's embarrassing to be taught something we should have grown up learning from my year mates, you know?

Whatever happened in the past, Charlie wrote, mom isn't drugging him now. Dad told us that all Ministry employees have to go through a yearly check-up after the war, to check for Imperious and things. It's how they caught a lot of secret Death Eaters. Madame Pomphrey say they check for potions in the blood too, if dad was fed a love potion the test would show that.

They all knew that didn't mean their mom hadn't drugged and raped him, just that she wasn't doing it now. He'd been potion free on his wedding day, but did that mean he'd been free after? Probably. Magical bondings didn't allow divorces, Molly didn't need to drug him once she already had him.

Bill didn't seem wrong. It didn't feel like anything was missing from him, but Gwendolyn had several screws loose and she knew it. Would she even be able to tell?

Charlie wasn't any better. He cared more about creatures than he did people, only his family and friends were the exception. Most people would save a person before a crup, Charlie would save the crup with no hesitation and sleep like a baby afterwards.

Percy followed the rules, but not because it was the right thing to do. If the Ministry made it a law to kill muggles, Percy would do it. He didn't care for right or wrong, only the rules. He was willing to find loopholes and bend for his siblings, but that was it.

Fred and George were kids, and they were already cruel. Not because they particularly enjoyed hurting others, but because they loved pulling pranks and didn't care about the consequences.

But was it because they were all children of a love potion or their Black blood? Because their mom had raped their dad or because they were being raised by slightly traumatised war veterans?

§§§

Muriel gave Gwendolyn the glasses, and Gwen gave them to Harry. There was a charm on the black, rectangular metal frames so they wouldn't break easily, and no one could steal them from him.

Pureblood lessons with Great Aunt Muriel took place over owl-post for Bill and Charlie, while Percy, the twins and Gwendolyn had them on Saturday morning until lunch while their mom was at St Mungus.

This let Gwen keep visiting Harry during the week.

Every once in a while, Percy and the twins joined her. Apparently, having Muriel's tacit approval was enough for rule-abiding Percy.

Percy was disappointed to see that Harry Potter was just a normal kid, and not the hero in the 'Harry Potter Adventures'. Percy found him boring, and soon he was nothing but 'Gwendolyn's friend' in his eyes.

The twins didn't know what to do with this shy, sweet kid who latched onto their sister like she would protect him. They knew she wouldn't, but she was sweet with him, gentle in a way she had only been with Luna before the girl made muggle friends and stopped visiting.

The only other times they'd seen her be this sweet was when she saw a cat.

With a shared glance, Harry was now Gwendolyn's pet in their eyes.

§§§

"Your brothers seemed to know me already." Harry told her.

"Maybe I told them about you."

"No, you didn't."

Gwendolyn sighed, 6 years old may be a bit young but oh well, who cares. "You're a wizard Harry."

§§§

"Why are you always so nice to me? Is it because I'm famous?" Harry wiped his mouth from the crumbs of the chicken sandwich and chips Gwen had brought him.

A meal and a nutrition potion, courtesy of Great Aunt Muriel, to counteract the Dursley that 'didn't feed him much'.

Because many lifetimes ago, I was you. I don't remember it clearly, and I'm Gwendolyn now, but back then I was angry at the world, and the hate didn't go away after my destiny was over. No one saved me, so I won't save you, but I wish someone had helped me, so I'll help you.

"Because I feel like it."

§§§

When Harry was 7 years old, Gwendolyn drugged him to sleep, with his consent this time, and fed her magic to James' fading spark. Together, James and Lily pushed while she pulled at the soul shard in Harry's scar.

Until, with a scream of rage and pain, the shard came out of the bleeding wound and entered a pretty little ring a classmate had given Gwen for her birthday.

She placed the ring in a box and warded it tightly. She'd hide it underneath a floorboard under her bed once she got home.

I won't save you, she ran her hand through his hair and eyed his sleeping face, scrunched up in pain, but I will help you.

She fed the sparks again to help them recover their energy. I'm starting to think these may not be Lily's and James' cores. She eyed them warily, not just their cores at least.

She shrugged, not my problem.

§§§

Percy started Hogwarts.

§§§

Muriel held up a vial of poison, "As a pureblood lady, you must know how to defend yourself."

Gwendolyn had once been raised as a Russian pureblood heir when the muggle Tsar was still alive, but he'd never been a pureblood lady before. There was a lot less simpering and looking pretty, and a lot more poisons, secret codes, and subtle ways to snub people.

Maybe it's just Muriel's generation? I mean, she did have to deal with two Dark Lords.

"Should your future husband ever… displease you," Muriel smiled, "there are plenty of ways you can get back at him."

Never mind. Evil husbands were always a thing, no wars needed.

The woman looked grim, "And if he's too powerful for you to defend yourself… there are ways you can… placate him." She shook off her grim mood, "But I won't teach you that until you're older."

"My parents won't force me into a betrothal," Gwendolyn reassured her, "and I fully intend to make sure anyone I marry signs a very strict binding contract so that they cannot hurt me." I've already had too many asshole exes.

Muriel nodded, "Yes, that is very smart of you," she looked off into the distance, "I guess there's a positive side to Molly and Arthur being blood traitors."

With a shiver, Gwen remembered that Great Aunt Muriel's husband had mysteriously died of a heart attack on their wedding night before the consummation. Muriel Prewett was said to have been so traumatised by the event, that she remained unmarried to this day.

§§§

Molly Weasley graduated from the Medi-Witch program after two years of going to St Mungus every day from Monday to Saturday from 9 am to 7 pm.

She hadn't had to pay any fees for her classes, but she also hadn't gotten paid for helping around the hospital. Now that she was fully trained, she could get a proper job.

However, instead of working at St Mungus like she'd been planning, she chose to work for a private clinic in Scotland that catered to werewolves, hags, vampires, and the like: Stars Clinic. The hours and the pay were better than St Mungus, and she could help those who St Mungus refused treatment to.

St Mungus services were free, since they were paid for by the ministry via the citizens' taxes, but because they were a Ministry run hospital they didn't allow Dark creatures, or squibs, on the premises.

Stars Clinic had been started by the now deceased Marius Black, Dorea Potter neè Black's squib brother, and was currently being run by his children and grandchildren while 2 house-elves took care of the janitorial duties.

Marius' eldest, his son Leo, was a wizard and the Head of the Clinic, and his wizard husband Evan was one of the Mind Healers on staff. The other one was a half-blood witch, Elena Stevens.

Leo's sister, Adhara was a Healer and her husband Steve, a squib, was one of the two Potions Masters at the clinic.

The other Potions Master was Castor, Marius' youngest, and famously known in the potions community for creating a potion so that non-bearers and women with fertility issues could conceive a child. However, since the potion used several ingredients illegal in Britain (seven drops of blood from the intended recipient amongst them), it wasn't available in the British Isles.

Leo's and Evan's son, Pollux, was also a Healer, and his cousin Polaris was a male midwife. Molly Weasley was the new Medi-witch on staff after the old one retired, and her fellow Medi-wizard Ash Grayson was muggleborn.

Patients of the clinic paid when they could, and only what they could afford, while Marius' 'Black family severance package', previously managed and invested by his now deceased squib wife, Anna, and now curated by Adhara's eldest, Irena, paid the difference so the clinic could stay out of the red.

The clinic was open 24/7 and patients were welcomed by the werewolf Mary Heart during the day (from 8 am to 7 pm) and Ash's boyfriend, the vampire Trevor Johnson at night (from 7 pm to 8 am). The two receptionists also made sure to send out appointment reminders by owl and packaged potions brewed by Steve and Castor.

Adhara and Pollux, and Steve and Castor, alternated who took the day or night shift. While Ash always took the night shift to be with his boyfriend, and Molly had the day shift.